Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up on my Member's statement with some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. My first question for the Minister: does the department track how many patients from the Nahendeh riding missed appointments or have to reschedule appointments because of flight changes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our responsibility is to provide healthcare to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Yes, many residents do have to travel to Yellowknife or other locations to receive their care. Through medical travel, we book our flights on scheduled flights. We work with our residents to make sure that they know the information. The Member is right. From time to time, there are cancellations of flights. We do live in the Northwest Territories, where we do have adverse weather and other things that affect us.
We don't track the cancelled flights, Mr. Speaker, but we work with our residents to make sure that, if there is a cancellation, we get them on the next appropriate or available flight. If appointments have to be cancelled, then we work with them to reschedule those appointments and make them happen as quickly as we can. At the end of the day, Mr. Speaker, we know we live in the Northwest Territories. We know there are challenges and we work to resolve those problems. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I realize we live in the Northwest Territories, but, again, if a contractor is not providing the services, we need to make sure we do deal with that. Has the department approached the contractor or have they approached the Department of Infrastructure to help get this situation fixed?
As much as I'd like to be able to control the weather, we can't. When there are flights cancelled as a result of weather, we work with our residents to make sure that those appointments are rescheduled and the flights rescheduled appropriately. The Member has brought that concern from his region to me. I share his frustration on the number of cancellations that occurred.
Following up on our discussions, the department did follow up with one of our main contractors from Medical Travel, who does the majority of the flights in the Nahendeh region. They indicated to us that it has been a particularly harsh winter. As a result, they have had to either reschedule or cancel a number of their flights.
Once again, our priority is to making sure our residents get the care they need and they're getting the appointments. We work with our residents. Yes, sometimes that means that appointments have to be cancelled, but we work with them to reschedule them as quickly as possible and to get them on flights as quickly as possible. It's not as always as smooth as we'd like, but we're committed to providing that service to our residents.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess I disagree. If it's not weather, I can guarantee you it was a beautiful day on New Year's Day and it wasn't the weather. Again, that is an issue.
I'm going to move on to something else in regard to my Member's statement. It is my understanding that there is close to zero vacancies of hotels and boarding beds in Yellowknife during various moments in the year. What does the department plan on doing to help alleviate this type of situation where patients have to wait at the airport due to no fault of their own?
I understand that some of the issues, according to the Member, might have been something other than weather, but I would like to point out that the beautiful Northwest Territories is 1.1 million square kilometres of land and 33 communities ranging from the Beaufort Delta to Fort Smith, including Yellowknife. I've been in Yellowknife on one of the most beautiful days and talked my friend up in Inuvik who had 40 below weather, blizzard, and no flights for landing. It is possible to have good weather in one location and bad weather in another location.
With respect to the Member's question, we do have some boarding room capacity. There are certainly only a certain number of beds in that thing. We also know that, with the increased demands around tourism, which we all know is a great thing, it does make it a little bit more difficult to get rooms. When we know we can't get rooms, we will work with our residents for non-emergency issues and try to schedule them for when we can get capacity. I strongly encourage residents to keep following up with medical travel and make sure we are having that conversation so that we can get them in as quickly as we can. We work with our residents.
The issue about where do people stay during a day trip, that is an issue that has been brought up by many Members, the Members from Sahtu, Hay River, and others. We are currently working on a review of medical travel, and we are hoping to find a way to resolve that particular issue. I am hoping to bring the medical travel review to committee by the end of March so that we can have a discussion on these types of issues.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to have to rebut that. I have been in the Northwest Territories all my life. Yes, it is 1.3 million great square kilometres, 33 communities. The day I am talking about, the plane went from Edmonton to Fort Simpson to Inuvik to Yellowknife. It hit four communities. Again, this airline company or the contractor didn't provide the service that was much needed.
I realize sending patient escorts out earlier than required might not be the best solution. I have heard it before about the potential appointments being cancelled, capacity issues with boarding homes, et cetera. I can't argue with those points. What is the department going to do to help patients who seem to be continually put out by this type of situation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I hear the Member. We do know that there is some frustration with individuals who are uncomfortable with going the day of their appointments just in case there is a cancellation. There is some frustration there. Patients can go early. They can book the flights themselves and seek reimbursement. The reimbursement is based on the rate that we would pay. We have a standing offer agreement with a number of our airlines, which is a little cheaper than what residents would pay if they booked themselves. We can reimburse them up to that rate.
If there are unique situations, the residents can approach Medical Travel to see if there is an option for them to come early. We are open to those in unique situations on a case-by-case basis. There are a couple of options that are available for our residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh. I was just being generous. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
